West Basin Grants Will Help Local Businesses Install HETs

Aug 26, 2010

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) has awarded West Basin Municipal Water District a $296,250 grant to replace more than 1,300 water wasting toilets in its service area with high-efficiency toilets.

To achieve maximum water savings, West Basin will target high-rise office buildings and hotels, but small businesses may also qualify.

West Basin’s Business Conservation Program began in 2009 with support from the California Department of Water Resources, initially funding 500 toilets, 500 faucets and 300 urinals. Some buildings in West Basin’s service area have had new urinals and faucets installed, but to complete their water-saving retrofit, the toilets still need to be replaced. The USBR grant will help to complete these retrofits-in-progress and support the water-efficiency efforts of additional businesses in West Basin’s service area.

Marriott has plans to reduce its energy and water consumption by an additional 25 percent per available room by 2017. In the Torrance Marriott, all 473 in-room toilets have been replaced as well as those in the lobby, saving 7 million gallons per year.

According to Dennis Keefe, director of engineering, “This program has been so successful with Torrance Marriott that we’re hoping to implement the same program with Manhattan Beach Marriott.” Keefe continued, “The water savings is helping to achieve Marriott’s ambitious sustainability goals, as well as helping our bottom line, and West Basin has made it easy for us to accomplish our goals.”

Funding for the Torrance Marriott retrofit has also been provided by Metropolitan Water District, Cal Water Service Co. and the Water Replenishment District.

With urinals and faucets installed, the 1960 Grand office building in El Segundo is another business that now just needs 71 toilets to complete its water-saving retrofit. The entire retrofit will help 1960 Grand save an estimated 2 million gallons of water each year.

Total water savings to be achieved through West Basin’s Business Conservation Program is nearly 30 million gallons a year. This is one of many water efficiency projects that will help West Basin achieve its Water Reliability 2020 goal to double its water conservation savings and cut its dependence on imported water in half by the year 2020.